


The Lost Prince

by writersunited4ever



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 03:48:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14300112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writersunited4ever/pseuds/writersunited4ever
Summary: He thought he had a normal life; that all changed three years after his grandfather died, as a mystery begins to emerge. It begins with a strange meeting with a girl who suddenly appears in his kitchen. Two days later his parents have disappeared and his friends and him are attacked at their school dance. His normal life farther decays with every piece of a distant memory that flashes through his mind. As each new piece of the puzzle is unearth new questions are asked. A prophecy is received from another planet from another galaxy where hopefully answers could be found about who Jonathan (Jon) Williamson really is.The Lost Prince shall return to his repressed kingdom,To set free his people from darkness that wishes to rule the galaxy,With him, he shall bring warriors of brave to see the kingdom freed,The Lost Prince's warriors will lead his army against the darkness' forces, while,Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Ether will come together,The 5 elements to light the darkness at the final hour,When the full moon reaches the highest peak,At the stroke of midnight,Or the world will fall to darkness





	1. Prologue

Prologue

October 2015 

The clear night sky has developed a purple tint and malevolent shaped clouds are scattered across the sky. Thunder cracks frequently setting a steady drone of drums. The wind rips through the branches of a previously peaceful forest with tremendous force. Rain falls without mercy turning visibility to zero and dry dirt into pools of mud. The backdrop of the angry clouds becomes illuminated by light in random bursts.

The blackness of the sky and the heavy rain makes it dangerous for anyone to be outside. The rain has been continuous bending trees over with its weight and the howling wind. Lightning, the only thing to split the cloud cover lets the occasional moon ray through. The sounds of the storm block out all other noises, however, without the screaming wind, past the clouds, through the sounds of rain, lightning, and thunder, an abnormal sound would have been heard. 

Behind the clouds an asteroid resembling object streaks across the sky; burning a path through the raging storm and towards the forest that's currently under attack. To any of the brave souls out in the storm the earth for miles seems to tremble when the burning asteroid impacted the ground, ripping and shredding trees as it lands. It comes to a smoking smoldering stop at the end of a crater. On closer inspection, it is not an asteroid but a large metal sphere. A square part of the sphere falls off, and a strange glow seeps out onto the mixture of kicked up dirt, mud, and grass. Through the opening wires and what looks like screens can be seen, changing its status to a ship. Nature itself seems to fall suddenly silent, and everything seems to pause. 

For several beats, not a sound is heard, not even the storm that was just a second ago ravaging the earth. Then the sounds return, and a human shape hand grips the sides of the ship. Out of it comes a dark figure. When it stands up straight, you can see the figure is wearing a midnight blue outfit. It jumps out of the ship and lands in the mud gracefully. The outfit is paired with a red hooded cloak and black fingerless gloves, black combat boots, and a complex bet. It wraps over one shoulder, across the chest, to the opposite hip, and encircles the figure's waist. If someone was in the woods that night and standing at a distance, they would only notice the strange outfit and not any distinguishable features. When the figure stands up lightning lights the sky revealing the face. It reveals that the figure is a boy. 

The rain minutely slows, however within seconds of the boy emerging from the ship he is completely soaked causing his mop of hair to be weight down into his eyes. The boy shakes his wet hair like a dog, before flicking up the hood of his cape. When the boy turns around to head back to his ship, a similar looking object lands about three miles away.

The boy jerks around at the loud crash. He curses before quickly reaching back into the ship to reemerge with a long silver sword, and a bow and quiver. After checking the surrounding area, he starts running towards the other crash site. By the time he arrives, the other ship has started to spark. The boy takes a minute to take in the scene. The ship is resting at the end of a long trench, at an angle with its nearly invisible hatch in the air. The ship is almost similar to his own, except for the color. He slowly creeps closer and by the time he gets to the edge of the trench, the hatch has opened, and out of it comes an older male.

The rain is now reduced to a trickle reducing the feel of the storm. With this, the features of the boy are clear to see. He has sandy blonde hair, clear forest green eyes, a straight nose, and freckles that spread across his nose and cheeks. He has small ears, a short and skinny torso, but long legs, and pale skin. He has long, skinny fingers and his body is lean. He crouches down on his toes and quietly watches the other shake off the crash before the man turns to face the boy. The man looks to be in his thirties with dark brown hair, and clear, dark blue eyes. While the boy’s body is gangly, the man is short and stocky. The outfit like the ship of the man is similar to the boy but for the color. The belt on the man is a dark green color, while the cloak and hood are a dark grey.

Just as the man opens his mouth to say something there is a noise from behind the boy. He turns back the way he came and a little to the left. The noise comes again, and he stands up ready to investigate when the man calls up to him. “Wait!” The boy half turns back to the man just in time to see him pull his own sword from the wreckage. “These woods are foreign to us. Wait for me.” The man instructs the boy. The boy helps the man out of the trench. The man attempts to brushes the mud off his pants without success, before looking at the boy. “Are you OK? The landing was not too rough was it?” The man questions the boy.

“It was a bit rougher than I was expecting, and like yours, my ship did sustain extensive damage but overall it was fine.” The boy assures in a soft voice. The man nods and they continue to walk quietly, making sure not to step on leaves or sticks that have fallen off the trees already. The boy looks around admiring the changing colors of the leaves between the trees.

They slow down when they start to come up to where they assume the noise originated from. They come to what seems like the edge of the woods, so they stop before they can leave the safety of the trees. Peering around the trees, they see an awe-inspiring sight. The clouds seem to have been reduced to mere wisps, while the wind persists at the same speed, but moon rays have started to shine through the trees, into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a glade, a river gurgling cuts through the middle, and whether it is a trick of the moonbeams, the river has been turned into crystal flames. The crystal flames form a wall which reaches the tops of the trees, trying to escape the clearing around it. The man and boy look at each other before cautiously creeping out of the trees and makes their way across the clearing to the river. Both must crane their necks to barely see the top of the wall, and they realize that they cannot see past it to the trees beyond. “What do you think it is?” The boy questions quietly.

“I have no idea, for all my years, I have never seen anything like this.” The man whispers. They observe the spectacle a while, watching the moon rays play off the river. As the man is about to suggest that the origin of the noise must have been an animal a twig snaps, the only warning they receive before the silence is shattered by gunfire. They drop to the ground and cover their heads, while they wait for it to stop. When the gunfire does crease, they are shocked to find that none of the bullets had hit them.

They stay laying down for another minute before they take off for the trees to the right of them. As they are reaching the tree line, the silence is once again broken, and the occasional tree branch shatters under the force of a bullet. The man is running ahead of the boy by a few feet, he keeps glancing back to make sure that the boy hasn’t fallen behind. Once more whoever is trying to kill them has to reload the gun. The man and boy take the chance to catch their breath and look behind them to see if they can’t find the person chasing them. However, the woods are too dark to see, as the trees are close together blocking out the light from the moon.

“Who is shooting at us?” The boy breathlessly asks the man.

“I do not know, but we should keep moving before they catch up to us.” The man advises. They slowly creep through the woods, keeping their eyes out for any sign of the person after them. Just as it seems that the forest is thinning out again, the silence is ruined by a single gunshot, and the older male collapsing to the ground.

“No! Jack!” The boy yells. He falls next to the man and hovers his shaking hands over the wound, panicking. “No, no, no! Jack! Jack, what do I do?” He is crying and ignoring the fact that he could be easily killed any second. Finally, the boy places both hands on the wound in the man’s chest. The pressure causes the man to groan in pain, as he starts to pant for breath. The man, Jack, grabs the boy by the wrist and looks up at him with shining eyes. “It’s going to be ok, Jon. But you must go, find someplace to hide, somewhere safe, find someone to take you in.” The man croaks, as he struggles to draw in breaths.

“No, Jack, you cannot die, I need your help, I cannot do this on my own! I do not know what I am supposed to do!” The boy sobs.

“In my left pants pocket there are two notes, one is for you, I need you to read it once you get someplace safe. It will give you instructions, you have to follow whatever the letter says, do you understand?” The man stresses. The boy nods and wipes under his nose with the back of his hand smudging a streak of Jack’s blood on his cheeks. “The other letter you need to give to whoever is watching over you. Promise me!” Jack instructs sternly. Again, the boy nods still crying and sniffing. “I promise, Jack.” The boy swears. The man gives him a small, solemn smile, before his eyes shift over the boy’s left shoulder, and exhales for the last time.

The boy tilts his head back, and screams to the sky, a long drawn out guttural wail. The boy bends over Jack, laying his head down on his chest not caring if he gets blood all over him, and his arms wrapped around Jack’s shoulders. He loses track of time and is only shaken out of his grief by the sounds of a lone car, driving by some feet away.

The boy straightens up, and sits back on his heels, and uses his wrist to wipe the tears from his face. With a shiver, he notices that his hands are covered in blood. He frantically smears his hands across the grass, trying to clean them. Finally, after getting off as much of the blood as he can, he searches the pockets of Jack’s pants looking for the letters that he had mentioned. When he finds them, he stuffs them into his own pockets, and gently grabs Jack from under his arms, to drag him and prop him up against a tree off to the side.

He leans on his right knee, rests his hand on top of the bent leg’s thigh, and rest his left arm on top of the bent knee, of his left leg which is pulled to his chest. He bows his head and whispers an ancient prayer under his breath:

“May you rest in peace,

May The One watch over your spirit,

May your spirit not wonder lost,

May you guard over the ones you left behind,

May you go slowly into the light,

May you peacefully leave this world behind.”

Lastly, the boy reaches towards Jack’s neck and removes the necklace that hung there, a talisman that was supposed to keep him safe, and slips it over his own head. Before standing up the boy kisses Jack’s forehead, whispers a final farewell, and reluctantly heads for the edge of the woods.

 The boy is watching his feet, to make sure that he doesn’t trip, when a tingle goes down his spine, causing him to stop. He looks up to find, whether from hallucinating with shock, or something else, in front of him is the beautiful white crystal flames from the river. He cautiously reaches his shaking hand forward and touches the flames, flinching back. He expected the flames to be hot, however, it takes him a minute to realize that the flames hadn’t hurt. He takes a deep breath, before laying his palm against the wall, and closes his eyes, like warmth, and calmness washes through him starting from his palm and down to his toes and up to his head. He takes another deep breath before he walks through the light, tipping his head back as he passes through the flames. His eyes jerk open in shock as he steps off a curb, that he was unaware of. The abrupt step down causes his head to jerk down to take in his surroundings.

The forest ends on the edge of a quiet cul-de-sac in a suburb. The street is made of seven houses, three of them three-stories and four two-stories. The boy is still in a daze, and yet he can feel a pull in his feet, towards the houses. He hesitates at the curb, afraid of what it means to be going the rest of the way alone. As if this new world shared in his mourning, it once again begins to pour. Blinded by the rain, only going by instinct the boy takes the first step out onto the deserted street.

 The pull takes him to one of the three, three-story houses. By the time he gets to the front door, his body has gone numb and he is shaky on his feet. He knocks on the door and leans against the right side of the house. After five minutes it’s pulled open and another man is standing there. “Please, help me.” The boy who is drenched begs the man. The boy sways where he stands before tipping over into the man’s arms. The man looks down at the bloody boy who is blinking through half-lidded eyes at him. The man picks the boy up, one arm under his shoulders and the other under his knees, and after closing the door, he carries the boy to the couch and lays him down. “What’s your name son?” The man whispers while pushing the boy’s bangs to the side.

“Jonathan.” The boy croaks before finally passing out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time posting on this website for please be easy on me. Please leave a comment on what you think about the story so far. I could really use the motivation as I want to get this published when I finish, however, it does not seem popular making it difficult to keep the hope that someday I'll see this book on shelves in bookstores in the future. I would appreciate any comment as long as it's not too negative. 
> 
> Thank you and remember to leave a review.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

October 2018

            The weak Fall sun, casts it rays down upon a forest, breaking through the scattered leaves that barely clings to the branches of the trees, dappling the forest floor. So far, the only sounds are that of the small woodland creatures, preparing for the winter. The quiet Fall afternoon is broken by the sounds of a creature bigger than the typical animal, slowly making its way forward. A boy of about fifteen years of age steps out of the bushes into a very small clearing. The boy is of small stature considering his age, and his sandy blonde hair, is shinning golden in the weak sun light. Over the boy’s neck is a black Nikon camera, which he stops every once in awhile to use. In his left hand, the boy is carrying a small bouquet of flowers. Tomorrow is the anniversary of when his Grandpa was murdered right in front of him. Every year on the day that he died, the boy and his parents go out to eat and then do something special for the anniversary. This year, the day before the anniversary the boy decided to go back to the glade which he hasn’t been to since they visited it three years ago, and leaves flowers under the tree for his Grandpa.

            Finally, after five minutes of walking the boy arrives at the glade. It looks just the same as it did that day besides for one difference, and a shiver runs down the boy’s spine. He slowly walks closer to the river in the middle of the glade and stares in bafflement at the change. Next to the river but on the other side to the boy stands a tall tree with some branches drooping over the water; that wasn’t there three years ago. The boy gives a small smile as the base of the tree is the perfect place to leave the flowers. The boy takes off his shoes and socks, to keep them from getting wet, and then cautiously crosses the river to gently rest the flowers against the tree. After he crosses back over, the boy sits on the bank of the river, and replaces his socks and shoes back on. The boy sits there in silence waiting to see if the river will light up like it did back then and stays there for a little longer than he had originally thought he would. He starts to jog through the woods, as he doesn’t want to stay in the woods for too long.

            After not paying attention to the thinning of the trees, the boy can’t stop from bursting out of the trees and across the street to his driveway. As he was shocked at the abrupt change in scenery the boy can’t stop himself from running into the driver’s side of his mother’s car. “Ugh crap.” The boy mutters his breath clouding the window. He steps back to see his mother laughing. He scowls at her before jogging around the car and to the front door. He opens the door and closes it behind him on the way to the kitchen to put his camera on a counter. The phone rings and he run around the island to grab it. “Hello, this is Jon. Who is this?” He asks.

            "Hi, Jon, it's Kate from the diner." A woman's voice replies, "Is your mom home?" Kate is one of Jon’s mom's friends who gave her a job at a small-time diner.

            “Oh hey. Yeah, she just pulled into the driveway. Hold on a second.” He walks through the hallway that connects the living room from the kitchen and he goes over to the door on the left side and opens it. He sticks his head through the door and into the garage just as his mom was climbing out of the car. “Mom, Kate is on the phone.” He tells her. He hands her the phone and backs into the living room while closing the door. He looks around the room. There’s a black leather couch facing a big bay window looking out to the road. The flat screen television sits mounted on the wall in a corner out of view of the window. Facing the garage door across the room is another arch that leads into the dinning room. Connecting the living room from the kitchen is a medium sized hallway, which he walks into the middle of and stops. To his left are two rooms; one on the right, and one on the left side of another short hallway. One of the rooms is a guest room. It’s a medium sized bedroom with a twin-sized bed, its own bathroom, and a mirror facing the bed on a white dresser. There’s a window next to the bed, and a closet. The walls are a plain darkish light blue and the rug is a dark blue. The second room is just a closet for towels and washcloths among other things. Then to his right are two more rooms. One on the left, and one on the right; the one on the left is big. The left room Kit’s parents use as their study. It has two desks, one for his dad and mom each. One wall is stack with filing cabinets, and there’s a closet for office supplies. The walls are light blue, and the rug is dark blue, and the other room is a bathroom. It has lime green walls, and white tile flooring.

            He continues with his afternoon and after he finishes the homework he has for the night, he heads upstairs to his room. He goes back into the living room and walks up the stairs by the dinning room. When he gets to the top, the first door leads into Jon’s parent’s bedroom. Then to Jon’s right a little way down the hall is another door. This door leads to the attic and diagonally across from that is a medium size bathroom.

            At the end of the hall is Jon’s room. He turns the handle and pushes open the door. The room is big, the second biggest in the house. The walls are blue and yellow like the beach, while the rug is dark blue. There are pictures that Jon have taken with his camera hanging up on his walls. He has a queen size bed, a walk-in closet, and an alcove with a window seat that he sometimes likes to curl up on and read a book. The window seat is next to a corner, which is sat back a bit making a private reading corner. There are five shelves drilled into the wall and underneath are pillows making it more comfortable to sit on the floor. Jon sits on his window seat looking out onto the street, and he watches his neighbors for a while.

            After a bit he leans his head back against the wall and close his eyes. As Jon drifts in and out of sleep a feeling of dread starts to creep up his spine. A dark cloud seems to hover above him, ready to cause bad things to happen. Something wet slides up and down the side of his face. Jon bolts upright to find his dog Whisper; a German Shepherd, standing next to him, the dog’s tail is waving in happiness. Jon laughs at the sight of her bright blue eyes sparkling at him, and his tongue hanging out of his mouth. He pushes Whispers head to the side as he swings his legs to the ground before standing up and stretching.

            He walks to his bedroom door, and he turns back to the window to make sure that the sun hasn’t gone down yet. Sure, enough the sun is just finishing setting. He turns off the lights, and the sun slides down the horizon line, and the room fills with moonlight from the window. Jon pads back to the bed, crossing over to his bedside table, and slides off a remote from the table. He climbs into bed and stretch his body out on the bed with Whisper laying on the bed beside him. He presses the green button on the remote. The ceiling turns from white, to black and then turns into the night sky. It doesn’t look fake, it looks like the actual night sky, sort of similar to a planetarium. This is one of Jon’s most favorite thing about his room. When people ask Jon what his parents do for a living, they are surprised to learn that they not rich, but well off. However, even though his mom works at a diner and Jon’s dad is a very successful lawyer. “Jon go get ready for bed!” His mom shouts up the stairs.

            “OK mom!” Jon shouts back. He gets off the bed and head for the bathroom. He changes into his pajamas and brush his teeth. After finishing he goes back to his bedroom, leaving the ceiling as the night sky and climbs into bed. He lays on his back looking at his private night sky for a few minutes, before rolling over onto his side. Just as he is about to fall asleep there’s a faint humming sound, but before he can put too much thought into it, a soft knock on his bedroom door, telltales the arrival of his father, arriving home late from the court house. The bedroom door opens slightly, and a soft shaft of light falls on his peaceful looking face. After a minute the door is closed without a sound. A minute or two afterwards, the humming picks up once again, seemly coming from downstairs. Jon quietly climbs out of bed to investigate, stopping at the top of the stairs.

            Looking down the stairs, he can’t make out his parents, and when he looks over at his parent’s room, he can see light under the door. Seeing this, two things become clear to him; first the strange humming isn’t one of his parents, and second, if he goes down he won’t be questioned about still being awake. Well, most likely, depending on what the humming really is. He slowly makes his way down the stairs, making sure not to let the stairs squeak. Once he gets to the ground floor, he walks through the hallway leading to the kitchen, and stops a halfway down. From where he is standing he can see a strange blue glow coming from the kitchen. He keeps going closer and the humming which he can now identify as a lullaby, grows louder, until it surrounds him. He finally rushes in and finds to his shock a glowing blue orb, hovering above the kitchen island. The lullaby seems to be coming from the orb. It starts to suddenly glow bright, until it causes Kit to have to look away.

            Just as suddenly as it became brighter, the glow blinks out allowing him to look back; blinking the black spots out of his eyes; when his sight returns, he jumps back with a gasp. Replacing the orb, sitting on the counter, with legs hanging over the side, is a person who is wearing a strange outfit. The person is wearing a black cloak with the hood up, which covers the body preventing him from being able tell whether the person is female or male. It also keeps him from seeing the outfit under the cloak. He flinches back when the figure takes off the hood and is shocked to see that the person is a girl. In a shaking voice Jon asks, “Who are you?”  

            “Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you. I just need to rest and then I’ll be out of your house.” The girl assures in a soft voice. Her soft voice is melancholy making him sleepy and the last thing he remembers is the same faint humming that lead him there, before everything turns black. “Jon, what are you doing lying on the floor? Get up and go get ready or you’ll miss the bus!” A female’s voice exclaims. He jolts into a sitting position groaning when his head starts to pound and rubs at his eyes. “What time is it?” He croaks, “Where’s the girl?”

            “What girl?” His mom questions.

            “Nothing, I guess I was sleepwalking.” He shakes his head to clear the cobwebs, before climbing to his feet, and slowly makes his way back upstairs. He goes to his closet and pick out a pair of dark wash blue jeans, and a tight fitting black V-neck t-shirt. He slips them on and then walks down the hall to the bathroom. After he finishes he heads back down to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast. Looking at the island causes shivers to run down his spine, and he turns away with a shudder. He grabs a piece of toast and put it into his mouth as he walks back into the bathroom in the hall downstairs. He brushes his hair and wash his face, before making his way to the front door and sling his book-bag across his shoulders. He walks out the door, and while it does he shouts goodbye to his mother. All the way to the bus stop he can't shake the feeling of being watched. For five minutes Jon stands at the bus stop alone trying to ignore his uneasy feeling. Finally, the bus pulls up, and the feeling of eyes watching him wears off. He hurriedly climbs into the bus, and makes his way down the aisle, before flopping into a seat half way down, next to his best friend. Tyler has light brown hair, and light green eyes. They have been best friends since meeting each other on the bus taking them to kindergarten. "Hey Jon, what's up?” He asks.

            "Nothing, how about you, did you finish the Ancient Languages homework?"

              "Yeah, but I had guessed most of the answers." Tyler complains. Jon nods in agreement. "You’ll never guess what I saw last night!” Jon whispers excitedly. “Last night I heard a weir..." He stops. _Should he tell him? No, it was probably just a weird dream_. "What? Tell me!" Tyler begs. He was just about to answer him, deciding to make something up, when he gives a sigh of relief when he realized that they have arrived at the school. “Look we’re here, come on I don’t want to be late for A.L.” He climbs out of the green seat, and out into the chilly, Tuesday, October air. _I wish that I had brought a jacket!_ Jon complains to himself. They have to wait outside for five minutes for the bell to ring. When it does he walks down the hall, up the stairwell, turn right, walk halfway down the hall and up to his locker. Opening the locker, he quickly grabs two text books and his black binder and blue binder and hurries to homeroom.

            Homeroom starts at seven twenty-five and ends at seven thirty. When the bell rings for homeroom to end, he heads down the hall to A.L. “Today we will listen to music that some of the ancient civilizations might have performed for rituals and then watch a video.” Mr. Khan, the teacher said at the front of the room. Kyle Johnson who sits next to Jon, raises his hand, “How long will it take to watch?”

            “It will take all week.” Mr. Khan replies. Mr. Khan is always cheerful because he feels like his life is full. He has flat blonde hair that is always sticking up, all over the place. As Jon is taking out his blue binder he hears the same humming as last night. He raises his hand and when Mr. Khan nods his head, Jon questions “what is this song that we’re listening to called?”

            “It’s called ‘The River’, why have you heard it before?” Mr. Khan asked excitedly. Jon shakes his head not wanting to draw attention to himself. He closes his eyes, and puts his head onto his folded arms, and tries to listen to the song and then later watch the video. Finally, the bell; to signal that the period is over, rings. He gathers up his books before walking out of A.L. and to his next class. All day it seems like school would never end, until finally the end of the day announcements came on. He is so focused on his thoughts that he doesn’t notice were he is walking until he bumps into someone. They fall back spilling their books on the ground.

            “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” He apologizes.

            “No, it’s fine it was my bad.” The other boy counters. Kit looks up and into bright blue eyes the color of the ocean covered by flat brown hair with bangs and blushes. He nods and stands up, before bending over to pick up his fallen books. “Again, I’m sorry. My name is Jonathan or Jon.” He introduces himself while holding out a hand.

            “My name’s Brian, it’s nice to meet you.” Brian shakes his hand before nodding his head goodbye and then walks away. Jon turns away and walks down to where his bus is waiting by the curb. He climbs onto the bus and look down the row for Tyler. After spotting him, he walks down the aisle to where he is sitting.

            Where have you been? Have you been avoiding me?” Tyler demands.

            “No, of course not! I’ve just had a lot of things on my mind lately.” Jon defends himself, before settling back into the seat as the bus pulls away from the school. The whole way home bright blue eyes the color of the ocean is the only thing he can think about. When the bus gets to his stop, he gets off it in a hurry, as he is looking forward to the day his parents have planned. Today, is the day that three years ago, Jon’s grandfather was murdered in front of his eyes protecting Jon, so he and his parents every year, does something in honor of his sacrifice. Today he has a light load of homework as it’s only a few worksheets in the subject’s math and science. Jon walks into his house, and once he gets to the kitchen he gets right to work. He has to have his homework done before his parents get home. This way they can leave right away to go to dinner and get ice cream, for the anniversary of his grandpa’s death. Jon finishes his homework by three o’clock, which gives him about an hour or so before his parents are due to get home.

            He heads upstairs and flops down onto his bed just as it starts to rain outside. For awhile he watches as the rain pours down and batter at the window. As he sits there he thinks about the upcoming dance which is next Friday. Tyler and he haven’t decided yet whether they want to go as they wouldn’t do anything at the dance, besides maybe sit on the sides, and occasionally dance. Finally, Jon’s parents get home, and he hurries downstairs to greet them. “Hi, mom, dad! Where are we eating?” Jon asks.

            “We were thinking the small diner that I work at? Is that OK?” Jon’s mother asks, “Then we will go to a 7:45 movie.” Jon nods with a smile and sits on the couch to wait for his parents to be ready to go. By the time they return from dinner and the movie it is ten o’clock, so they get ready to go to bed. Going to asleep is going to be hard as Jon sometimes has nightmares about the murder every year. When he finally does fall asleep it is not into a sound one, he does have a nightmare but, it is not the usual one. In the dream he is back in the kitchen and the girl is there, but something is wrong. There is a chill in the air, and it feels like all the warmth and happiness left the face of the Earth and there was no hope or love anywhere. The girl turns to face him, and she takes off her hood. The girl’s eyes are red, like she hasn’t slept in days. Her chocolate brown hair that goes to the middle of her back is in flames, and she is ghostly pale as if she died and came back to life. When she opens her mouth, there aren’t any teeth but fangs. From her forearm to her white knuckles is a cut that is still bleeding and dripping onto the kitchen tiles. The girl lungs at him, and he startles awake in a cold sweat, and gripping his throat.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

            After waking up from his nightmare he drifts in and out of sleep until finally his alarm goes off. Kit sighs in resignation, rolls out of bed, and trudges over to his closet to start getting ready for school. He throws on a white plain t-shirt, a black pull over-hoodie that is slightly too large with thumb holes, dark washed black jeans, and tan work boots. After finishing getting dressed he sluggishly makes his way into the kitchen where his parents are already making breakfast. “Good morning sweetie, I made French toast and bacon.” His mother says as she sets a plate down on the kitchen island. He grunts his thanks, before settling down onto a stool and digging into breakfast. “Are you alright? You seem tired, did you get any sleep last night?” My dad questions in concern.

            “Not really, I had a bad dream last night, but I’ll be fine.” He sighs. He finishes eating breakfast before he heads to the bathroom to finish getting ready for school. He forces a brush through his hair and brush his teeth before finally heading back down to grab his backpack and head over to the bus stop. He lives on a dead-end street with five other families, with the bus stop located at the beginning of the street. All the houses are on the right side of the street facing a set of deep set woods. As he is making his way to the bus stop, some of the bushes are rustling, and he can hear snapping sounds like twigs breaking. While he is not normally scared of the woods, something inside him is screaming _danger, danger!_ It persistence, until finally it gets the better of him, hasting his steps. When he gets to bus stop he can’t help checking over his shoulder every ten seconds. Just as the tingles stop traveling down his spine, and he feels safe a girl steps out onto the sidewalk on the opposite corner. With a jolt he realizes that the girl is from his nightmare from last night. Kit opens his mouth about to scream however, no sound makes it out.

            A shock runs through him when he realizes that the girl in front of him does not match the features of the one in his nightmare. She still has the same chocolate brown hair without the flames, a nice rosy color to her face, and soft, liquid, light blue eyes. Instead of a cloak, her outfit consists of a short sleeve blue shirt with a flower in the bottom corner, and plain white skinny jeans. Completing her outfit are a pair of white and red running sneakers. “Please go away.” He begs, “don’t hurt me.”

            The girl laughs. “I’m not going to hurt you. My name is Maya and I didn’t mean to scare you.”

            “I don’t believe you.” Kit replies, “how did you get into my kitchen?”

            “I don’t know.” She replies in uncertainty.

            “Really because you had seemed like you knew what you were doing.” Kit retorts with arms crossed. She shrugs helplessly, and they stand in silence for a few minutes, just staring at each other. Kit opens his mouth about to say something when the bus finally pulls up. “Well, this is my ride, I have to go.” Kit awkwardly speaks, before giving a small, stinted wave, before climbing up into the bus. When he turns around to sit next to Tyler, to Kit’s shock, Maya also comes climbing onto the bus, and flashes a sweet smile at him, before taking a seat three rows up from him.

            “Dude, who was that?” Tyler exclaims having seen the look Maya had given to him. Kit shrugs nervously, “I have no idea. She just came out of the woods, after I got to the bus stopped.” Tyler gave Kit a funny look, before launching into what he plans on doing for the weekend. By the time the bus has arrived at the school, Kit is relaxed, and everything feels back to normal. That feeling of normality disappears a few minutes before the bell rings as Maya suddenly pops up to his right, asking “can you take me to see the principle?” Kit looks at Tyler, who stares back at him in confusion and shrugs indifferently. Kit gives a hesitant nod to Maya and looks straight ahead in awkward silence for the bell to ring. The teachers finally open the doors and everyone files inside. Maya and Kit heads straight down the hallway, make a left turn at the second turn, makes a right fifty feet down that hallway, before finally arriving at the front office. It has huge windows allowing people walking by to see inside the office. Kit holds the door open for Maya and steps in behind her, before making their way to the lady sitting at a desk. “Hi, I’m Kit, and this is Maya.” Kit introduces them.

            “Hi, sweetie, how can I help you guys?” The lady questions. The woman wears her hair in a brown bob haircut, violet glasses, and what can be seen behind the desk she is wearing a white blouse. “Maya is new here, so she needs to talk to the principle about her paperwork.” Kit explains politely.

            “Of course! I will let the principle that you are here, so take a seat.” The woman wave towards a set of chairs set against the wall set next to the bank of windows. Kit gives a small nod before pulling Maya behind him to the seats. After about a minute the woman lets them behind the desks and leads them to a wooden door with a clouded window pane. The woman knocks on the door before opening it quietly. “Here you are, go on in.” She whispers, before giving them a small smile, and leaves back to her desk. They walk into the office and stops behind the two seats that are set in front of the principle’s desk. “So which one of you is the one who is new?” The principle asks in a deep voice. He is a man in his early fifties, with a grey bread, his hair is short and black with some grey scattered throughout it. When he stands up to gesture to the seats it reveals that he has a slight potbelly. “Thank you, sir. My name is Kit, I am already a student here, and this is Maya she is the one who is new.” Kit explains confidently before taking a seat.

            “It is nice to meet you. So, shall we get started?” He questions.

            “I am a transfer student from California, my parents should have sent you all the necessary paper work including my transcripts?” Maya explains. The man turns towards his computer to check his email, while Kit sends a nervous glance towards Maya. She gives a small head shake before turning back to the principle. “Ah here it is.” He nods, and hums as he quickly reads through the email. “Well, looks like everything is here, along with the schedule that you made, so let me print it out for you, and then you can head over to your homeroom.” The principle promises even as he sets the schedule to be printed. They thank him before leaving his office. Before they can leave the front office, the woman at the front desk, stops them. “I just need you to fill out this form and have all of your teachers sign it, and then at the end of the day, you need to bring it back here.” She passes them a piece of paper with a few questions before they are finally allowed to make their way out of the office and around the corner before they stop. Kit takes out his schedule so that they could compare them and see if they share any classes. They wind up having all the same classes except for the last one. “How did you do that?” Kit exclaims, “I’m pretty sure that you aren’t from here, so how in the World did you know what to do?” Maya shrugs brushing off the questions. “Come on, doesn’t our homeroom start any minute? You also still have to go to your locker.” Kit scowls at Maya before turning away and head through the school to his locker.

            After changing out the binders for the correct one, he helps Maya fill out the form, finishing just as they reach the door to homeroom. Kit introduces her to the homeroom teacher, and afterwards they head to the back of the room to their desks. After about five minutes homeroom is over and they make their way over to A.L. and again go to sit in the back of the classroom, after once again introducing Maya to the teacher, Mr. Khan. Since most of the class is full Maya had to sit at the opposite end of the row. As with the day before Mr. Khan puts on the movie, which gives him time to start thinking about what the deal with Maya is. By the time the class ended, he still hadn’t decided on anything, so he continues showing Maya from class to class. By the time lunch finally comes around Kit can’t help but to sigh in gratitude, that he will not be alone with Maya for long as Tyler and he have lunch together. By the time they arrive at the lunch room Tyler is already sitting down at their table. Kit waves at him before leading Maya over to the lunch line.

            Kit sits down next to Tyler while Maya takes a seat across from them, when they finish grabbing their lunches. “So, Kit, who is your new friend?” He asks sarcastically.

            “Tyler, this is Maya. Maya, Tyler.” Kit introduces with an eye roll, before digging into his lunch.

“Well nice to meet you Maya.” Tyler nods turning away to dig into his own meal. For most of lunch it passes quietly with only small talk floating between the three. When lunch was almost over Kit began to feel a prickly sensation on the back of his neck. Turning around he searches for the source of the uncomfortable feeling before finally landing on a table in the back corner. The table is full of the more popular crowd; through mostly members of the football team, but there is only one person at the table paying attention to Kit; Josh Dale; the quarterback. It sends a shiver down Kit’s spine, and he quickly turns away. Tyler and Maya give Kit weird looks silently asking what the problem was. Kit turns towards Tyler before whispering, “is it just me or is Josh Dale staring at me?” Tyler quickly looks over to where Josh is sitting to find that he was indeed watching Kit, though now his gaze seems to eclipse over the whole table. “No, Josh _is_ looking over here.” Tyler whispers back with a shiver of his own.

            They look at each other before looking away. Just as Kit decides to get up and leave the room to get a break from Josh’s staring, but the connection is suddenly broken. He turns around expecting Josh to have looked away, but is surprised to see the boy he ran into the day before is standing there instead. “Hey, your Brian, right?” Kit questions.

 “Yeah, hi. Can I talk to you for a minute?” The boy asks.

“Sure, what’s up?” Kit asks puzzled.

            “Can we talk somewhere more private?” Brian questions awkwardly. Kit nods before standing up and following Brian out of the cafeteria. They go into the boy’s bathroom, and checks that no one is in any of the stalls before anything is said. “I know that this is going to sound weird, but I would really like to get to know you more.” Brian asks

            “It’s not weird. I would like to get to know you better too.” Kit assures shyly, while rubbing the tip of his shoe against the floor.

            “Great! Could I sit at the table with you guys?” Brian asks with a blinding smile. Kit nods speechless, before leading the way back to his table. Brian sits next to Kit on his free side, and they spend the rest of lunch talking about their favorite things. They find that they like a lot of similar things, such as reading and writing, and they both like the colors black and red. They also like German Shepard’s, monkeys, and foxes, they also both like to take pictures. They figure out that for their whole life they have been living behind each other. 

            When the bell rises for lunch to be over, Kit and Brian exchange phone numbers and promises to text each other later. The class following lunch are shared between the three of them, so after stopping at their lockers to switch out their morning books for their afternoon ones, they head to their class together. The last two periods none of them share a class so they agree to meet at Kit’s locker at the end of the day before heading over towards the buses. The last two periods for Kit are science and social studies which passes by in a daze, and finally it was time to head home. As he starts down the hallway to his locker, time seems to slow down, and until everyone is moving in slow motion, except for him. Looking down the hall to Mrs. Kelly’s classroom, who Kit has for English, the same Maya from his nightmare, walks out into the middle of the hallway. Kit screams but nobody seems to hear him. He feels an invisible force pulling him down the hallway towards where Maya is waiting. The floor looks like it is bending, pulling and folding into Maya’s feet. He finally becomes so tired that he stops fighting it and gets ready to leap to the side at the last second. Kit tenses his legs and starts to count down from ten. Once he reaches zero, he leaps to the side, and just when he thought that he made it, a hand as cold as ice wraps around his ankle and pulls him to the ground hard.

            As his body hits the ground, the icy feeling slowly, and painfully creeps up his leg, and keeps going up until his whole body feels made out of ice, even his blood. As he is lying on the floor helpless, and unable to move, he hears a voice inside his head, it sounds like Maya’s but older and has a hard edge to it. _Run, child, while you can! Soon after I finish with Areom, I will be coming after you and your home. No one will be able to stop me._

Suddenly like the presence is becoming weaker, Kit’s brain unfreezes, and he can think again. _I have no idea what he is talking about._ Kit thinks. When he feels that the rest of his body has defrosted, he quickly makes a plan to get away. Once his body has stopped tingling he jumps up and tries to punch Maya in the jaw, only for his hand to go right through, as if she is made out of viper. After making one last desperate move of trying to swipe her legs out from under her and failing, the voice from before comes back to whisper, _do not trust her! She’ll bring you down with her. Join me and I promise to spare you and everyone that you love._ Suddenly, the cold feeling in the air is gone, and everything returns to normal as if nothing ever happened. However, the feeling of horror stays with him.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

By the time Kit finally reaches his locker five minutes has passed since the final bell rang. He switches out his binders for the correct ones, before following the flow of people out to the buses. He is still in a daze from the events that had transpired upstairs and almost walks pass Maya, Tyler and Brian, but Maya snaps him out of it by calling his name and waving him over. “What took you so long? Aren’t the buses leaving soon?”

“Yeah sorry, I got held upstairs. Let’s go before the buses leaves.” Kit apologizes, holding back a shiver, when looking at Maya reminds him about what happened upstairs. Maya and Tyler nods while Brian looks at him with concern, before they follow Kit out to their bus. The ride to Tyler’s bus stop is quiet as everyone seems to have a lot on their minds. Then it seems as if Brian’s stop comes up a second, and he climbs off the bus after Kit promises Brian that Kit will call him later that night. When it is just Maya and Kit, he turns to her to ask a question that has been bugging him for the last few hours. “Maya, what are you going to do now? You don’t have anywhere to go.” Kit questions.

“I was actually hoping that you could convince your parents to let me stay, just until I can figure things out.” Maya asks hopefully. Kit stares at her with his mouth agape, and even by the time they reach their stop, he hasn’t replied to Maya’s request. They shuffle off the bus in silence. They are almost to Kit’s house, and he still hasn’t come up with answer, however, he doesn’t need to. There are people whispering and pointing at something down the street. Looking up the road he can see police cars, fire trucks, and neighbors surrounding a house, and then with a gasp of horror, he realizes that they’re in front of his house. Fearing the worst, he runs up to the nearest police officer, and asks, “What happened?”

“It’s strange, there was a fire, however, the house has no fire damage. They haven’t found the source or the people living here. I don’t think anyone was home, thank god.” He explains confused. “Do you live here? You guys don’t look hurt?” He asks sympathetically.

“I live here, and we just came from the High School, over the bridge.” Kit informs him.

“OK, we’re just heading out not much else we can do here. If you could come down the station, we would like to ask you a few questions.” The officer asks. Kit nods numbly and before following the police officer into his cruiser, Kit turns to Maya, “Stay here, until I get back.” Kit reluctantly climbs into the back seat of the cruiser, and they head over to the police station, to hopefully get some answers. Once they get to the station Kit is lead to one of the interview rooms at the back of the building.

The officer who Kit finds out name is John pulls out Kit’s chair for him before leaning against the back of the chair across from him. “Can I get you anything? A snack from the vending machine or a drink?” John asks. Kit mutely shakes his head and folds his hands in front of him on the table. “OK, then, let’s get down to business.” John sighs taking a seat. “First can you tell me your name?” John requests.

“It’s Kit.” Kit rasp quietly.

John nods and writes it down on the legal pad in front of him. “So, I’m guessing since you were in school, before you left this morning was the last time that you saw your parents?” John asks next. Kit nods his head while keeping his eyes on his interlocked fingers. “Why don’t you walk me your way through your morning.” John requests.

“Sure. Um, I woke up at my usual time, got up and dressed. I had a quick breakfast, and then I left for school. That’s it.” Kit explains quietly.

“And nothing different happened this morning? Is there anyone that would want to hurt your parents?” John questions. Kit thinks back to that morning but can’t spot anything off about it, except for the appearance of Maya and his nightmare, but he can’t say anything about those things. “Nothing abnormal occurred today, and my mom’s work is too dull for anyone to hate her. My dad is a lawyer, but I don’t remember any of his recent cases being too dangerous.” Kit answers.

“OK, well I am going to give you my card incase you remember something. Now, is there anyone that I can call? Do you have somewhere that you can stay?” John asks. Kit looks down at his folded hands not knowing what to say. _I don’t have any other family relatives that I could go and stay with while they look for my parents. Maybe I can ask Tyler if I could stay with them for a bit._ Kit takes in a deep shaky breath, “I could maybe ask my best friend Tyler if I could stay with him for a bit.” John nods, before passing over a pad of paper so that he could write down Tyler’s house phone so that he could call the parents. “I’ll be right back Kit. Are you sure that I can’t I get you anything to eat or drink?” John questions.

“Just a bottle of water please.” Kit requests quietly. John nods before leaving the interview room. After John comes back with the water bottle and then left again to make the call, Kit takes out his phone to text Tyler and let him know what was happening. Then he settles back into his seat to wait for John to come back and let him know what was going to happen next. After twenty minutes of waiting for John, he returns with a small smile, “so looks like your friend Tyler’s parents said that you could stay with them for a bit. At least until something better is figured out.” John explains. Kit nods silently and then follows John out of the room, through the squad room and out to the squad cars.

The ride back to Kit’s house, so that he could pick up some of his things to bring over with him to Tyler’s house was silent. Arriving back at Kit’s house, Maya is still sitting on the front steps, though Tyler has joined her, and they are talking quietly. Kit climbs out of the squad car and bends back into the car to say a quiet “thank you”, to John for the ride back. John gives a nod back and a small smile before driving back to the police station. Kit shuffles across the front lawn and stops at the bottom step. “Sorry, I should have given you the key for the house. I didn’t think about it.” He apologizes sheepishly. Maya and Tyler shrugs showing that it was no big deal. Kit opens the front door and leads the way to his bedroom. He pulls out two black suitcases from the back of his closet and tosses it onto his bed before ruffling through his drawers for the clothes he wants to take with him. Even though Tyler’s house is one street over, Kit doesn’t want to have to keep coming back to his house for clothes. When he is done packing clothes, making sure to have packed his favorite and special leather jacket, he moves onto collecting any electronics, and a few books that he has been wanting to read for the past few days.

“OK, I think that I have everything that I need.” Kit turns to Maya and Tyler, when he gets a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Wait, what about Maya? She isn’t from here, we were going to see if she could stay with me! Now what are we going to do?” He cries.

“Calm down Kit-Cat! I’m sure my parents won’t mind if she stays with us too, we have plenty of room for both of you.” Tyler reassures. Kit gives him a wobbly smile and a nod, before hiking his heavy backpack onto his shoulders, and grabs one of the suitcases, while Tyler grabs the other. The walk over to Tyler’s house is silent as everyone’s mind is filled with heavy thoughts. Tyler’s parents are nice when they get there, though Kit wasn’t expecting anything less. Tyler and he have been best friends since kindergarten. They show Maya and Kit the bedrooms that they would be staying in before leaving them to unpack and get situated. By the time Kit unpacks most of his possessions it is almost dinner time. While he waits to be called down for dinner, he sits crossed legged on his bed, and closes his eyes. “OK, time to organize the day events.” Kit whispers to himself.

Every once in awhile it comes to a time where too many big events happen in a short period of time in people’s life, so they need to take a few minutes to think over. For Kit one such time is now. He has to think about everything that has happened with Maya. He needs to see what he knows about his nightmares, and the other Maya, which means making a list. He needs to come to terms with the fact that his parents are missing, and the fact that there are no leads. Finally, he needs to think about the strangeness of how his parents had disappeared.

Finally, Kit needs to decide if he wants tell Tyler about the truth of who Maya really is. After running through all the different consequences of telling Tyler the truth, he decides that he will risk it, as they have known each other for such a long time. _Don’t worry, everything is going to work out._ Kit tells himself. Then he takes out a spare notebook and starts to write out his thoughts on all the questions that he just asked himself. Ten minute later Tyler’s mom calls up to them that dinner was ready. Maya, Tyler, and Kit meet up in the hallway, and walk the rest of the way to the kitchen. When they get there, they help Tyler’s parents set the table, and while they eat, they take turns talking about their day, though they avoid mentioning Kit’s parents. By the end of dinner, despite the events of the day, Kit leaves the room feeling a bit lighter.

When they go back upstairs after helping clean up dinner, Maya, Tyler, and Kit go into the room that Kit is staying in. Kit looks over at Maya to silently communicate that he is going to tell Tyler the truth about who she is. It takes over ten minutes to connect Tyler up to speed on Maya, and he also tells them about his nightmares, and what happened in school today. “I don’t know what all of this means yet. But what I am almost sure about is that by helping Maya with things, will bring me back to my parents. Tyler, if you don’t want to be apart of things, I’ll understand, and I won’t tell you anything else about it.” Kit ends with. Kit and Maya hold their breath while carefully watching Tyler for his reaction.

It’s a few minutes of silence before he finally gives a response with determination; “Count me in.”


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

For the rest of the night, because it is too late to do anything, they switch the topic to school, and they stay in Jon’s room, working on their homework late into the night. Jon is just awake enough to remember to text Brian and hold a good ten-minute conversation before he falls asleep. The next morning is interesting as it takes Jon a few minutes to recognize where he is, and he rolls over to face the wall with a groan. The only thing that makes Jon feel a little bit better is the knowledge that it is Thursday. Though that sends a jolt through him when he realizes that today tickets for the dance the next night goes on sale today. With another drawn-out groan, Jon climbs out of bed and goes over to the corner where he left his suitcases the other night. He pulls the one with clothes over to his bed before placing it onto it, and zips it open.

He sorts through his clothes, promising himself to put them away in the closet and dresser in the room when he returns from school. Finally, he pulls out grey washed jeans, which have faded somewhat, a black V-neck, and a grey and green plaid shirt, before getting dress. Lastly, Jon pulls on his black vans, and slowly makes his way down to the kitchen. Maya and Tyler are already in there, with Maya just finishing her breakfast, and Tyler is washing his dishes. “Good morning, J!” Tyler sing-songs with a huge smile on his face. Jon squints at him with still sleepy eyes, before shuffling his way over to the kitchen table.

Jon makes a bowl of cereal and starts to eat it slowly before he gets a glimpse of the time, which jolts him into trying to shovel a spoonful of cereals into his mouth, barely stopping to chew. “Relax, J, my mom said that she has time to drive us to school today. Which means you still have ten minutes to eat and an extra five minutes of bathroom time.” Tyler smirks before heading back to his room. Jon shrugs and slows his eating but only a little, as he doesn’t like to waste time unnecessarily. Finally, all three of them are ready for school, and they pile into Tyler’s mom SUV.

With Tyler’s mom driving them to school, they have an extra ten minutes to wait for the bell to ring. Two minutes after they get to the school, the buses all pull up, and as soon as Jon spots Brian, he darts out of the car, with a shouted “thank you,” to Tyler’s mom for the ride. Jon catches up to Brian and bumps shoulders with him. “Hey! I didn’t see you on the bus, so I got worried that you weren’t going to come to school. What with your parents and everything.” Brian exclaims excitedly.

“Sorry I forgot to text you, to let you know that Tyler’s mom was actually giving us a ride to school.” Jon explains with a sheepish smile.

“It’s no problem as long as you are OK.” Brian reassures with a grin. “So, I am normally not the kind of person that likes to go to school functions unless it’s mandatory, I was wondering if you want to go with me to the school dance tomorrow night?” Brian mumbles awkwardly.

Jon’s mouth splits into a wide grin, and trying to repress a squeal, “I would love to attend the dance with you. But is it OK if Tyler and Maya tag along too? Tyler and I were thinking about going anyway, and Maya is new here, so I would feel bad about leaving her at Tyler’s house alone.” Jon questions.  

“Of course! I don’t mind.” Brian comforts. Brian and Jon give each other another shy smile before Tyler and Maya finally catch up to them. The bell finally rings allowing the students inside the school. They all continue their day and by the time lunch rolls around Jon is practically vibrating out of his skin, since he can finally buy the tickets for the dance. Plus, nothing unusual has happened at school yet, so Jon has been able to relax. Tyler, Maya, Brian, and Jon meet at Jon’s locker before lunch. “Hey, so I know you guys don’t really think much of my friends, however, I know some people that you _will_ like, and I would like to introduce you guys to them.” Brian requests. Tyler and Jon look at each other before they shrug, and Tyler tells Brian, “Lead the way then.” Brian leads them to the cafeteria and across it to the doors at the far end of the room which leads to the outside courtyard where most people hang out when the weather is nice.

Brian leads them to a picnic table that’s set underneath the branches of an old oak tree that has been there for years. There are eight people sitting at the table already, and they don’t wear any kind of uniform so it’s safe to assume that they aren’t a necessary part of the popular crowd. “Hey, guys! I wanted to introduce you to these three.” The eight people that were laughing and occasionally throwing food at each other stops to turn towards Brain. “Brian my man! Where have you been, I looked for you yesterday at lunch, but I couldn’t find you!” One of the boys exclaims. The boy that spoke could be best described as a punk. His hair is buzzed on the sides, while the top is long with bangs that lay across his forehead. While the sides are dark brown, the top has been dyed snow white and he has bright green eyes. His skin tone is the opposite making the white of his hair to stand out; he is dark skin, though you can tell that it’s from spending hours out in the sun.

“Relax Nick, I was sitting with Jon and his friends Tyler and Maya.” Brian explains while pointing out each person as he says their names. “Jon, Tyler, Maya, these are my friends Nick Shade, Nicole Shade; they’re twins, Tom White, Caitlyn Summers, Tara Calhoun, Logan Mitchell, Taylor Wilson, and William Scout.” Brian introduces, while once again pointing out each person as he says their names. They either give a wave or a head nod, before moving over to make run for Jon, Tyler, Maya, and Brian to sit down. The others go back to talking amongst themselves, as the others pulls out their lunches and come settled in. “So, are any of you going to the dance tomorrow?” Brian questions.

“Nicole and I are definitely going. You know Brian that we would never miss a good party.” Nick replies with a smirk. The others laugh at Nick’s joke before chiming in on their opinion about attending the dance. They spend the rest of the lunch period getting to know each other so that it isn’t awkward when they hang out at the dance. The following class periods are quiet with everyone focusing on the dance. As Tyler, Maya, Brian, and Jon are leaving school to head to their respective buses they are making plans about getting together later.

They all go their own way to the buses making sure that Brian was going to come over to Tyler’s house at five o’clock so that they could make a plan for the dance. The hours leading up to Brian’s arrival is filled with Maya and Jon unpacking their bags in their rooms. By the time five o’clock has rolled around the unpacking is done, they have worked on some homework that is due the next day and has started to help Tyler’s mom to start making dinner. The doorbell rings at five on the dot which Jon goes to open. On the other side is of course Brian in a black button shirt, dark grey jeans, and black boots. Brian had his back to the door while he was waving goodbye the person who dropped him off and turns with a huge grin on his face. “Hey!” Brian sticks his hand out for Jon to shake. Jon uses the hand that he shook to pull Brian in the house before he drops it with flushed cheeks and closes the door behind them. “Hey. You are right on time. I hope that you are hungry! Tyler’s mom made meatloaf.” Jon exclaims while leading Brian to the kitchen.

After making the proper introductions the dinner goes smoothly, they even all chip in to help clean off the table and even wash the dirty dishes. They all make their way up to Tyler’s room, to talk about the dance, and because he has a TV in his room so that they could plan video games later. They decide that it would be easier to pick up Brian from his house on the way to the dance at six thirty. While Tyler is setting up the WII for them and Maya looks through the game collection, Jon and Brian talk about whether they want to wear clothes that go together or not. They decide that Jon is going to wear a red V-neck, black skinny jeans, black boots, and a black blazer, while Brian will wear the same thing, but the V-neck and boots colors will be reversed. After that, they spend the next two hours playing various games on the WII, though they spend most of those two hours planning WII sports than any other game. At seven thirty Brian’s dad pulls up to pick him.

After he leaves they all go downstairs to join Tyler’s parents in the living room to watch some TV before they all head to bed. The next day at school is more of the same, except for the fact that most students aren’t paying too much attention to what the teacher’s where saying. Before too long, they are back at Tyler’s house getting ready for the school dance; Tyler’s mom helping Maya to get ready for the dance since it is her first time going to one. They all gather in the living room, off to the right of the front room, at six o’clock. Maya is wearing a strapless blue dress that stops just below her knees. Tyler is wearing something like Jon and Brian, though his outfit is all black with a midnight blue skinny tie. They all excitedly pile into Tyler’s parent’s car, his dad is taking them to the dance this time, and head over to pick up Brian. By the time they arrive at the school, the dance is in full swing. Tyler’s dad promises them that he would be back at eleven o’clock to pick them up unless they want to leave early.

They get online to hand in their tickets to the “bouncer” at the front door, which moves slowly as anyone with a bag has to get it to check as well. When they finally get through the door, the adrenaline from the energy of the dance is in full effect. They quickly go into the room off from the gym, where everyone keeps their bags and coats. Afterward, they head to the crowd and tries to squeeze their way towards the middle, so they aren’t hanging out on the edges. By the time they have to leave the dance floor for drinks, the gym is packed so its difficult to move. While Tyler and Maya wait in the line for the refreshments, Jon and Brian spend a few minutes watching the crowd o see if they can’t find Brian’s friends from earlier. When they don’t spot any of the others, they make their way back to Tyler and Maya to help them carry the drinks. In another room next to the gym, the teachers have set up a few tables for students to sit. They grab a table next to the windows so that the sound of the music is slightly dulled.

“So, Brian tell us some things about your family? Is there anyone else besides your mom and dad?” Tyler questions.

“I have an older brother Ryan, who is in his second year of college. I also have an aunt, uncle, grandma and a grandpa on my dad’s side. Then on my mother’s side, I only have my grandparents.” Brian explains, “what about you Tyler? Do you have any other family members?”

“I have an aunt and uncle on both sides of my family.” Tyler answers. Brian nods in reply, and they eat in silence for a few minutes. “How about you Jon, what is your deal with family?” Brian questions him.

“Oh, I only have my parents left, my grandpa was killed three years ago.” Jon answers quietly. A solemn silence settles over the table, no one knowing what to say in reply to Jon’s confession. “Don’t worry Jon. Something similar happened to me. That’s actually why I am here.” Maya hints. They all stare at her, still not knowing what to say in reply to that. Jon suddenly clears his throat before gathering up his trash and move away to throw it out. “I’m going to run to the bathroom before we head back out to the dance. There is only an hour left of the dance.” Jon comes back to inform them. The other stands up to also throw away their left-over food, and Tyler and Maya head out to the dance floor. Brian follows Jon to the bathroom to check on him. “Hey, Jon, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to upset you.” Brian apologizes.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong! Besides, you didn’t know. I’m fine, I promise. The anniversary was a couple of days ago, that’s the only reason why I’m so upset.” Jon waves the apology away with a half-hearted smile. Brian gives a sad smile in return before coming up to him and envelops him in a hug. “Still, I’m sorry,” Brian whispers in Jon’s hair. They stay that way for a few more minutes before pulling away, with a blush staining both of their cheeks. Jon opens his mouth to say something when suddenly the temperature seems to drop a few degrees. They can see each other’s breath turn to vapor when they exhale. The glass in the mirrors start to crack as the temperature continues to drop, and they become covered with ice. “Jon, what is going on? Why is it so cold?” Brian questions with chattering teeth.

“I-I d-don’t k-know.” Jon replies, wrapping his arms tightly across his chest. Previously, the brass of the music from the gym which could have been heard through the wooden door is now very faint background noise, almost nonexistent. A familiar tingling sensation creeps over Jon’s body, and his blood freezes in his veins as he begins to recognize what was happening. The doors of the bathroom stalls start to shake in their hinges. The main door to the bathroom which was propped open with the garbage can, slams closed, and the _clunk_ of the door’s lock could be heard. Brian and Jon jumps and spins around to face it with their heart pounding in their ears. Jon grabs Brian’s hand and pulls him back so that they are pressed against the wall of the room. “Everything is going to be OK. Trust me.” Jon tries to sound reassuring even as his body vibrates with tremors. Brian peeks over at Jon out of the corner of his eyes with a look that says that he doesn’t believe him. Jon in replies gives a shaky smile and squeezes their hands together.

Under the sound of their heart beating in their ears, there is another sound, just a whisper of noise. The doors of the stalls suddenly stop slamming open and close, and the air grows still and silent. The air is still cold, there is still ice on the mirrors, but the air is silent, as it wraps Jon and Brian in a bubble that blocks out all noise. They both try to slow down their breathing not wanting to shatter the unnatural quiet of the room. “I tried to warn you. I tried to discourage you from continuing on the path that you have chosen. And yet, here you are promising to give help for something you have no way of possibly understanding. Prince, listen carefully and heed my words for this is the last time I shall try to help you. Leave it alone while you still can. If you continue the way that you are, the consequences will not be pretty, and you will always carry around the guilt of failure with you for the rest of your life.” A cold rasping voice speaks from the very air, the feeling of something with malicious intent washing over the two boys, leaving goosebump in its wake. “LEAVE WHAT IS BEYOND YOUR CONTROL ALONE, OR ALL THAT YOU LOVE WILL BE LOST FOREVER.” The raspy, cold voice, booms with authority, scaring them beyond their wits.

As the last word’s echo starts to die down, the evil feeling recede, and the temperature slowly begins to warm up the air. It doesn’t seem though to take away the chill that had seeped beneath the boy’s skin as if they spent hours in below freezing waters. The locked door, swings open without a sound, and the muted music from the dance returns with a _bang_ causing the boys to flinch. They share a haunted look between the two of them, before racing out of the bathroom in a panic. As they make their way into the gym, across the floor to the room where their coats and bags are kept, they keep their eyes out for Tyler and Maya. They finally spot the two; as they fast walk into the gym, holding their things, over by the door leading out into the front hallway. They walk over to the two with hurried steps, and hands over the bags and coats with shaking hands and pale white skin. “Are you two OK? You look like you saw a ghost!” Tyler jokes with a smile that slips away when neither boys give him an answer. Instead, they both push their way through them, and out the front doors, to the sidewalk.

Tyler and Maya share a look as they follow silently behind, while Tyler texts his father to let him know that the dance was finished. As the four of them stand at the bottom of the front steps waiting for Tyler’s dad in silence, Jon and Brian’s minds race with thoughts of the cold voice. Jon and Brian’s mind are filled with different theories, however, only Jon knows the truth. One thing becomes clear to Jon through the fog and the fright: Whoever the voice belongs to is not a friend to Jon and his friends and something terrible was coming towards them. And nothing will ever be the same again after tonight.


End file.
